| Author | Banks ex Pursh | |
| Distribution | Mountains, Piedmont, and northern Coastal Plain; disjunct to Piedmont-like habitats in Jones and Brunswick counties.
Western CT to IN, south to GA and MS. | |
| Abundance | Frequent to common across the Mountains, Piedmont, and northern Coastal Plain, except rare in the far northeast. Quite rare to absent in the central and southern Coastal Plain and in the Sandhills. | |
| Habitat | Dry to mesic soils of woodland openings, fields, grassy montane balds, clearings, roadsides. It requires disturbance, seldom seen inside forests. |
| Phenology | Flowering and fruiting August-October. | |
| Identification | While Slender Goldenrod can appear "ordinary" for a goldenrod, it has one unusual feature: stems and leaves are smooth (hairless), except for tiny hairs in the inflorescence branches. Plants grow mostly 2-4 feet tall from narrowly ovate, stalked basal leaves; stem leaves become smaller, narrower, and sessile upwards. The inflorescence is elongate, with generally erect branches. Many plants tend to have light yellow rays, as opposed to rich "goldenrod" yellow rays, a character than can often be seen from some distance. Showy Goldenrod (S. speciosa) is similar in the field, but may reach 6 feet, and has a broader, more crowded, and showier inflorescence. That species usually has larger/longer basal leaves, as well -- sometimes reaching 6-8 inches long. | |
| Taxonomic Comments | None
| |
| Other Common Name(s) | Showy Goldenrod (the common name most in use for S. speciosa), Erect Goldenrod | |
| State Rank | S5 | |
| Global Rank | G5 | |
| State Status | | |
| US Status | | |
| USACE-agcp | | |
| USACE-emp | | |
